You're Next
To get a better understanding of how to construct a horror film trailer based on key conventions, I will be taking a look at 3 existing horror film trailers. The first one I decided to analyse is You're Next. One of the key things which I noticed was the large transition between two halves of the horror trailer. The beginning section (or first half) appears to be in a normal, calm tone, with the story progressing in the way a film trailer for any other type of film would. But a point arises within the trailer where this changes, and the music, lighting and pace all vary drastically to emphasise this shift in the storyline and highlight all of the tense, scary or unnerving moments. Another key element I noticed was the lack of a narrator, focusing instead on the characters on-screen to tell the story, as well as text appearing on-screen. This text that appears on-screen is another key convention present within the trailer, accompanied by silences/eerie music to make the audience think for themselves and let them formulate their own ideas or thoughts. The final major convention I picked up on was the large flashing montage of footage that appeared near the end, showing various short clips of the character(s) perhaps in danger, summarising the overall film into short, shocking jump cuts that the viewer struggles to absorb. This is the desired intention, as it leaves the audience confused and slightly unnerved.
The Conjuring
The next trailer which I decided to take a look at is for the 2013 horror film 'The Conjuring'. This film has a lot of similarities to the trailer for 'You're Next', the previous trailer. Once again, it adopts this 'narrative' style to the trailer, where there appears to be two 'halves' to the trailer, although in this trailer, they are far less even, with the 'calm' part to the trailer lasting for a far shorter time period than during 'You're Next'. This lets me know that perhaps as long as the emphasis is still there on the fact that there are two 'halves' to the trailer, then perhaps the length of each is not as important - personally, however, I do not like the fact that the 'calm' element of this trailer is short in comparison to the last trailer. The sound effects and music, once again, were a contributing factor to the horror within the trailer, indicating that I must take great care and not simply overlook the sound elements in favour of the visual ones, as both are equally important.
The Babadook
For my final trailer, I decided to watch the trailer for the 2014 horror film 'The Babadook'. Once again, the main thing which I picked up on was the similarities to the previous two trailers - especially due to the use of the 'two part' structure once again, setting up the storyline at the very beginning of the trailer before a 'shift' occurs and the characters become aware of the horror aspect of their surroundings. The trailer makes use of a very dark environment, featuring lighting that would appeal greatly to an audience familiar with the genre, noting that a dark environment is a key convention of a horror film. In my film trailer, I will try and recreate this dark and very ambiguous environment through the use of lighting effects, music and audio effects as well as through the use of dialogue and character movement.
The Babadook
For my final trailer, I decided to watch the trailer for the 2014 horror film 'The Babadook'. Once again, the main thing which I picked up on was the similarities to the previous two trailers - especially due to the use of the 'two part' structure once again, setting up the storyline at the very beginning of the trailer before a 'shift' occurs and the characters become aware of the horror aspect of their surroundings. The trailer makes use of a very dark environment, featuring lighting that would appeal greatly to an audience familiar with the genre, noting that a dark environment is a key convention of a horror film. In my film trailer, I will try and recreate this dark and very ambiguous environment through the use of lighting effects, music and audio effects as well as through the use of dialogue and character movement.
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